Lec
# 66- 2nd Sun of OT- Jan 20, 2013- Fr. Bresowar
My
brothers and sisters in Christ,
Often
times anniversaries mark those special occasions in our life where we commemorate
a milestone or important event.
For
example, in my calendar on my phone, every May 15th I have it marked
as Deacon. And every year, on May 15th I forget why I have that
marked and I start to wonder what it is I’m suppose to be doing that day when I
remember oh yes, that is the date 3 years ago that I was ordained a deacon.
That was the date where I formally said yes to celibacy for the Kingdom and
made a promise of obedience to the bishop. Essentially that was the point of no
return for becoming a priest. Then on June 4th a year later I have
on my calendar my priestly ordination.
I’m
sure many of you have your own important dates marked on your calendar,
especially your wedding anniversaries because it is important I hear, not to
forget that date. Some people have first dates, first kisses, first this and
that… all of those are important points in their own lives, that have
significance to individuals as things they do not want to forget. It may seem
silly sometimes to some, but to others it’s really important.
And
while we usually associate the word anniversary as a time to remember those
good things, important moments in our lives; we must not forget that
anniversaries also commemorate those things, which are not necessarily pleasant
to remember.
Things
like deaths in the family or events in history where a disaster occurred,
storms, natural disasters, or even man made disasters like Pearl Harbor, or
9/11, or even most recently the shooting at the school in New Town. They bring
up painful memories where often times the worst that humanity as to offer is
relived in our lives for a day.
Unfortunately,
this year, this week, is another anniversary where what the worse that humanity
has to offer, and in particular in this country, is on display yet again. In
few days, I will be traveling with a group kids from Blessed John Paul II
Catholic high school, joining other teenagers and adults from this diocese and
all over the country to Washington DC to commemorate and protest the 40th
anniversary of the single worse supreme court decision in our country’s
history, Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion.
Since
that time, over 55 million infants in the womb, at the beginning stages of life
have been discarded for all different sorts of reasons.
Regardless
of those reasons, that’s 55 million children who never had a shot at life. The
consequences of such an astounding number of people who never got their chance are
unspeakable on our society. Demographic crisis’s, unknown achievements that
might have been, the emotional scars that sometimes never heal, and ultimately
the decreased value place on human life are just the beginning of the
atrocities that have resulted from 40 years of legalized abortion.
These
numbers, these facts, they are never brought up by abortion proponents; because
they are not a value of many who believe abortion should be a safe and legal
possess. For many, the fact that a woman has control over her own reproductive
choices outweighs the reality of what abortion does to the woman or to society
as a whole. The child becomes something of an inconvenience especially when we
have our whole lives in front of us. The strongest abortion opponents can cave
in to this perception when their own child becomes pregnant, or their own child
causes a pregnancy. Governments, who more and more bare the financial burden of
the individual, would champion abortion because of its obvious economic
benefits they proclaim; this is why you see most abortion clinics in the
poorest of neighborhoods across the country. If you convince or control the
poor not to have children by abortion and contraception, sterilization, then
society will be less burdened financially. In reality this isn’t the case, and
as the birth rate continues to decline, the likelihood of financial stability
decreases. Stats you never hear about in the mainstream media.
Yet,
all of that pales in comparison to the destruction that abortion, and the
decreased value placed on human life has had on our country as one which use to
see itself subservient to the one and true God.
Ultimately,
abortion takes God out of the equation and places the burden of life and death
on the individual. We can look back in history, and see where we have tried to
assume the responsibilities of God numerous times, and see how well that has
played out. Not well at all, ever.
And
it is not simply with abortion that we try to play God; it happens in other
areas as well; and just like with Israel, who often times ignored the warnings
of the prophets, it never works out. Abortion though, is likely the worse we
have ever seen in our country. A society which kills it’s own offspring, is a
depraved society indeed. It used to be seen as an atrocity, now it is seen as a
convenience.
All
of this will play itself out over time, and in the end, God, who is ignored
now, will be called upon to fix the problem once we realize that we can’t solve
issues by doing things which are contrary to life, goodness and truth, God will
end up making all things right in the end. But we will have to live with
consequences of our actions.
It’s
never easy to do the right thing; and sometimes doing the right thing totally
alters our way of life, our plans, our vision of how we saw our own life
working out; yet doing the right thing always bares more fruit then choosing to
be our own god. And nothing is more evident of making the right decision then
seeing the face of a child. People say it’s cruel to bring a child into this
world in harsh conditions; the reality is that it’s cruel not to. Because life
is beautiful; and despite the odds against it, when lived according to the plan
laid out by God himself, which necessarily requires sacrifice, life produces
fruit. Life is synonymous with truth, beauty, and love; all of those things
necessarily must be shared by their nature, and as Jesus shows us with his own
life, sacrificing our own desires to become the master of our own world, will
bring about happiness, peace and joy reasonably in this life, and eternally in
the next.
Life
is good, why do we try to hinder it?
God
tells us you are my beloved, my espoused! A royal diadem, a glorious crown. As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you. You are my delight! That is
our dignity; that is how precious we are in the eyes of our Lord.
If
we knew what we were tossing away with abortion, we would never even consider
it. That which is made in the image and likeness of God, that which possesses a
dignity above every other creature, angels included; a human life, the pinnacle
of God’s created universe and for no other creature did he Himself come to save
by taking on human flesh and nailing himself to a cross, if we knew… if we only
knew what we were doing; the idea of abortion which make us sick to our
stomach.
But
that’s how undervalued life has become for the sake of convenience.
Mother
Teresa once said when she was addressing the American people…
"America needs no
words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great
nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their
children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart
of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of
the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society.
It has portrayed the
greatest of gifts—a child—as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience.
It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered domination over the independent
lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters. And, in granting this
unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands
from their husbands or other sexual partners.
Human rights are not a
privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by
virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be
declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or
a sovereign."
May
God have mercy on us as a country, and may all of us here always do the right
thing individually and defend the inherit dignity of life at all stages, even
if it means going against the grain of society. For in the end, our choices do
matter, they effect everyone and everything, nothing will be concealed,
nothing… in the End, God wins, and we should pray dearly every day that not my
will be done but his, as on earth as it is in Heaven.
